In recent years, the increasing pervasiveness of technology has not left the mobile sector unchanged. To the contrary, automobiles, trucks and other vehicles are experiencing an increasing deployment of technology. While such technology has the advantage of improving the driving experience, much of this technology, particularly electronic technology, also increases the mental overhead necessary to operate the vehicle. Thus, the driver must not only control the vehicle and monitor the traffic which surrounds the vehicle being operated, but attention must also be given to GPS navigation equipment, pagers, engine efficiency gauges, and so forth. Most seriously, in recent years, cellular telephones have added yet one more distraction for the motorist operating a vehicle.
Over the years, many innovations have been introduced in an attempt to minimize driver distractions during operation of a motor vehicle. For example, early on, preset channel buttons were introduced, thus reducing the level of distraction introduced by -tuning of a radio. More recently, multiple functions have been combined, and single buttons, which when repeatedly pressed, put the equipment in different functional configurations. The particular functional configuration associated with the point in the sequence of multiple pressings is given to the operator on the display of the radio. When the multiple functions button is not clicked again after making a certain display, the radio changes, after a preset period of time on the order of one or two seconds, to the particular functional configuration last displayed.